Do these parts match?

The 5830 is not that much stronger of a card than the 5770. You might do a price/performance comparison and be sure you dont want to go up to a 5850 or down to a 5770.

Motherboards come with onboard audio, you dont need an add-on sound card.

Any new AM3 motherboard will have PCIE x16 v2 slots so that is not really an issue. You should look for a motherboard that will handle USB3 and SATA 6GB; the price is basically the same so why not do some free "futureproofing."

As for the bottleneck, it will be your graphics card.

The power supply is pretty important. Bad ones will give inconsistent power and cause lockups, glitches and really bad ones could even damage other parts. A good quality 80+ certified power supply from a reliable company (Antec, Seasonic, Corsair, etc.) will give you a more stable and long lasting system. The Wattage you need is determined by what graphics cards you are going to put in, so figure that out first.

Get a 5850 and forget about crossfire, you can buy a cheaper mobo.

You can't go wrong with this:

Asrock 890GX AM3 motherboard with 3PCIe slots.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

or this:

MSI 890GXM-G65 AM3 with 2 PCIe slots.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

removed.

You don't need a 800 watt power supply. I'd go with something about 600W, which is really overkill as well. Here's A good one, be sure to get it with a combo deal such as with a hard drive,DVD burner, or memory and you'll save up to $20. Its also modular so you can remove the cables you don't use or need.

OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product


I'd grab a 955 and spend the saved money on a Mugen 2 cooler for overclocking. If you have the extra money though go ahead and get the 965.

Get a Radeon or 5770,5850, or 5870 depending on what your budget allows. The 5830 is a rip of in terms of performance/price ratio.

Motherboard. All new motherboard have inboard HD audio, which is why 95% of gamers don't even bother adding cards, because there's such a little, if any gain at all. Perhaps the same will be true for graphics one day. I wouldn't bother with the extra cost associated with having 2+ PCI-E slots. Instead just spend the extra money saved on upgrading your video card to a 5850 or 5870. I don't play farcry 2, but I know its a demanding game. For modern warfare 2 though I usually get over 100 FPS at 1680x1050 with a 5770 XXX edition, so crossfiring for MW2 is pointless. (expect a 20% drop in performance if u play at 1920x1200). Which would still be 80 FPS. FC2 is much more depending, but i'd still recommending just grabbing a XFX 5870 or 5850.


I got this motherboard and it seems to work great.
ASUS M4A77TD AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131603

While not as popular brand, This motherboard will work fine as well and its $25 cheaper.

ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157176

2. PCI-E gen 1 slots have half the bandwidth, all new motherboard have GEN 2 slots though. Brands like ECS don't even often post that they're board are 2.0, so you'll have to email them.

3. The bottle knock will definitely be your video card. Notice toms hardware's builds usually go with cheaper processors, because the faster ones are just overkill. I prefer to go with faster processors, because its unlikely you'll use your computer just for gaming.